Scrap Booking Help (Or Why I Am Mad at Google and Computers)
I meant to do a lovely Easter recap but instead ended up taking our computer in once again (I think this is the 4th time in 2 weeks) to have them show me where the put all the recovery files when a nasty virus took hold and needed to be abolished.
I found out that I lost all my photos since Halloween, and would have lost another year had I not backed them up before that date. And because they had to remove all my programs the worst thing that happened is that I found I can now no longer download Picasa because some smarty computer person decided it would be a good idea to get rid of it and put in it’s place a super basic, super lame Google Photos which offers none of the scrap booking features I used for years and years and knew by heart and took me a long time to learn. I had SUCH a good quick system going with uploading my pics to the blog, or making collages and now I am frustrated because I do not want to take the time to relearn something again. I want EASY. I want to spend about 10 minutes on this thing once a week. I want to make scrapbook pages in a flash.
So what to do now? Besides smash my computer with a hammer and say forget the whole thing. And get a Mac which I might just ask Santa to bring me in 8 months. Can anyone suggest anything else to use in place of Picasa? It must have collage features, and I have to be able to use text (not just tags or captions but write ON the photos.) And I would love to not have to upload my photos every time I want to use it-they would just be there when I uploaded them into the computer. And it would be free. If anyone has any good suggestions I would love it. Thank you!
UPDATE-
THANK YOU ALISA! I used this site to reinstall and it worked perfectly with no extra junk attached.
I use Becky Higgin's project life app. I now do all of my scrapbooking on my phone. If I'm using photos from my computer rather than my phone camera roll, I just bring them to my phone on Dropbox. Saves me so much time because I can scrapbook anywhere when I have a few minutes of downtime. Google her website for more info.
That was my going to be my suggestion too. I have used Bevky Higgins project life app but not printed anything. Is that hard to do?
Ordering pictures from the app is SUPER easy. Just follow the directions. Very inexpensive and the prints are beautiful.
I'm so sorry to hear about your computer issues. I was concerned as well when I heard about them discontinuing Picasa. I was inspired by your blog a few years ago to start scrapbook with Picasa and have loved it ever since. Perhaps someone could share the program with you? Maybe asked Shari at Persnickety Prints? I did happen to see a u tube video recently where they used photoshop to create pages. Definitely a new learning curve but does seem similar. here is the u tube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Y1BaBF1kc
Hope you figure something out! Love your blog ! Kristin H
That stinks big time! I hope that you can find your photos taken since October. I use a mac and use iPhoto but it does not have scrapbook capabilities that I know of. Apple is replacing iPhoto with Photos app (which I don't like as much) so I am in the same boat as you. I am hopelessly behind on any sort of photo books. I gave up somewhere between child 3 and child 4! I will be reading the advice others leave here. Good luck!
Pic monkey is pretty good…it has way fancier options than Picasa, but the basics are there too 🙂
YOu should try the Becky Higgins Project Life App!!!
Sarah, I still have Picasa. Is there some way you can still use it?
I am so upset about Picasa too. I have been sharing monthly albums with my family using Pucasa since my oldest was born almost 9 years ago. Now I am 4 on the behind because of the changes. Something you might want to check out and try is PicMonkey. It's web based, they have a free version and a subscription version. It is really straightforward, I think you might be able to do your scrapbook pages with it, but it is not a place to store pictures.
Could you maybe download Picasa here?
http://www.oldversion.com/windows/picasa/
THANK YOU IT WORKED!!!! You saved my life or at least 267 hours of my life.
Yay!! Saving this link!
Yay- good to know for future!!!
Oh good, I'm glad it worked! Yay!
I was also going to suggest the Project Life app from Becky Higgins. I used Picasa for years after being introduced to it by you. But two years ago I began using the Project Life app exclusively and love it! It's even easier than Picasa for me. I use the Rhonna Designs app to write directly on photos. If you have any questions you can email me directly at ohsusanawontyoucry@gmail.com. I am passionate about documenting my family memories and always have been. I cherish my scrapbooks and it's very important that scrapbooking be quick and easy so I can stay current. I'm so sorry for your frustrations and understand your feelings completely.
How depressing- I did not know Picasa was discontinued -it's official then we are never getting a new computer!
Hi Sarah – I was disappointed to learn that Picasa was discontinued as well. I have heard wonderful things about Becky HIggins' Project Life App, although I haven't tried it yet. I don't take photos with my phone, so I think I would have to transfer them all to Drop Box. Good luck!!
Apple Mac w/ iPhoto. Don't look back!
Iphoto is terrible!
Its so frustrating when our tried and true methods have to change. I make annual photo books through the Shutterfly website for the grandparents and I use the Project Life app for scrapbooking my favorite photos/events. I still print my photos every few months and keep them in basic slide-in the pocket photo albums. I know that's old fashioned but I still love having the prints chronologically saved in my own home not just in a "cloud" somewhere. Good luck to you, I hope you can find a system that works for you quickly.
I am sorry you lost ANY precious pictures at all!! I hate to hear that! I saw that about Picasa and hated to see that go away too. I am a big digi-scrapper and I have one recommendation for you. Use Shutterfly and their photo book application on their website. If you intend to eventually get a photo book of your scrapbook pages, then I cannot recommend Shutterfly enough. They enver delete your photos for one thing. They always are running awesome sales (free shipping, % off, etc) all the time so you won't have to worry about paying full price when you decide to order your book. I have only used them for my kid's memory books and I can attest to the quality the finished products are. They are great! But back to their software….it's free to use and you can customize each page to your liking. They have thousands of backgrounds, stickers, embelishment, etc that you can add or take off their pages. They also have quick pages you can add to your book. It's really easy to use too. I do a mixture of pages I make outside of Shutterfly (in Adobe Photoshop Elements) and pages that I make from what Shutterfly has in their library. Another thing I love about Shutterfly is they have excellent customer service and they give away a lot of money to charitable causes (Ellen has them give away a ton of stuff on her show to needy families).
Thank you April that is good to know!
Another vote for PicMonkey. I've used Picasa for years, but have to say that the premium version of PicMonkey is way better for collages, text on photos, etc.
http://www.cindyderosier.com/2016/03/its-time-for-4th-annual-bunny-week.html
My husband works for Apple – we can get you a discount when it comes time. Just let me know!